could strike again here's hans nichols. >> reporter: after spending the day after his golf of club, a fresh threat from president trump. we have targeted 52 iranian sites representing the 52 american hostages taken by iran many years ago. warning that if iran strikes any americans or american assets, those targets will be hit very fast and very hard the presidentclaimin that american lives were in danger based on intelligence that has yet to be shared with congress. >> this president has to make a case that there was anmmen mike pompeo, calls allies and is being met with criticism, not congratulations. >> the brits, the french, the germans need to understand what we did, what the americans did, saved lives in europe, as well. >> reporter: vice president mike pence under fire for claiming that soleimani assisted in the clandestine travel to afghanistan of 10 of the 12 terrorists behind the 9/11 attacks. according to the 9/11 commission, neither iran nor hezbollah were involved in the planning of the attacks. there's no known intelligence to suggest that soleimani was personally involve

hans nichols reports >> reporter: tonight, two moderate republican senators indicating that they are open to hearing from witnesses in president trump's impeachment trial. >> i am very likely to vote for additional information. >> if i determine that i do not have enough, i will vote to -- to accept additional information. >> reporter: this afternoon, the president's legal team responding to the senate impeachment summons, calling the articles a "draws -- dangerous attack thright of the american people to freely choose their president. their comments coming after fresh photo evidence putting lev parngiuliani, into focus for democrats. the photos bolstering parnas' claim that he was well connected to the trump world. >> everybody was in the loop >> reporter: the photos released by the house judiciary committee along with text messages that link parnas, a soviet-born businessman, to house republican devin nunes. a staunch trump defender parnas texted an aide to nunes to arrange interviews with key ukrainians also, do you want to interview the general prosecutor nbc news reached out to

nbc's hans nichols is at the white house and a.b. stoddard joins me as well, associate editor and columnist for real clear politics. garrett, let me start with you. historic week, another one there in washington. what are we expecting to see happen? >> the speaker will meet with her conference tomorrow morning, get the final word on go on moving the articles over to the senate. what they're voting on here is the naming of the impeachment managers, folks who you'll be on a first-name basis with by the end of the next few weeks. these are the folks prosecuting the case against the president in the senate. if they vote on the floor on this on tuesday, the senate is required to take it up the very next day. it could be tuesday or wednesday of this week. it doesn't mean the action will look like what you would expect of a trial right away. the senators have to get sworn in as jurors, the chief justice of the supreme court sworn in for his role. frankly, these sides may need more time to prepare. it's our understanding the folks who will b

hans nichols has more on what to expect >> reporter: president trump touching down in texas to tout his china trade deal before a friendly audience. after the president's legal team formally responded to the senate impeachment summons calling the articles brazen and unlawful democrats today dismissing that argument >> there's ample evidence, overwhelming evidence. any jury would convict in three minutes flat >> reporter: alan dershowitz a retired harvard law professor, distanced himself from the white house legal team that he's joining. >> i didn't read the brief or sign that brief. that's not part of my mandate. my mandate is to present the constitutional argument >> reporter: aside from knowing tuesday's start time, there's still uncertainty if new witnesses and evidence will be allowed during the process. >> if senator mcconnell prevails and there's no witnesses, it will be the first impeachment trial in history that goes to conclusion without witnesses. >> reporter: some of the rules are known. no cell phones, no standing, no talking. senators are commanded to keep silent on feign o

>> hans nichols tonight. thank you. >> another major story heading into the start of 2020 the standoff over president trump's impeachment trial. the president saying he's more than ready while his personal lawyer rudy giuliani is offering to testify here is nbc's jeff bennett. >> reporter: president trump ringing in the new year while spoiling for a fight over his impeachment telling reporters tuesday night he welcomes his upcoming senate trial. >> i look forward to it we'll see. we have absolutely, we did nothing wrong. all you have to do is read the transcript the president of ukraine said loudly and boldly and i appreciate his statement. he said it many times. there was no pressure. >> reporter: as the president's personal attorney rudy giuliani said he would be willing to participate. >> i would testify i would do demonstrations i'd give lectures. i'm give summations or i do what i do best, i try the case i'd love to try the case. >> reporter: it comes justice john roberts wi preside over the senate proce

>> hans nichols traveling with the president in florida tonight. hans, thank you. >>> also breaking this evening, the deadly crash of a small plane near kansas city it happened shortly after takeoff from an executive airport. the single-engine plane was on fire when authorities arrived. they say that both people on board were killed >>> it is already the new year in much of the world where people are celebrating the start of the new decade and here in new york, they're getting ready for the most famous new year's spectacle, the ball drop in times square nbc's stephanie gosk is there tonight stephanie, the police are out in force >> yeah, they certainly are, peter the more than one million people that are expected here packed into times square tonight will be surrounded by layers of security. the nypd has thousands of boots on the ground they also have officers in some of the high-rise hotels everyone who comes in here gets searched among the things they can't bring in, alcohol, backpacks and chairs and that's really only naming a few of the things t

nbc's hans nichols is following this one for us. >> reporter: it was a sudden and brazen attack.housands of iranian-backed demonstrators chanting "death to america" as they stormed the u.s. embassy in iraq here using a battering ram to try to pierce the armored entrance lobbing smoke bombs onto embassy grounds. embassy guards watching from the roof protesters lighting fires, though they never got inside the walls of the massive embassy complex. the pentagon dispatching 100 marines from kuwait to shore up defenses president trump tweeting the u.s. embassy in iraq is and has been for hours safe and that iran will be held fully responsible saying they will pay a very big price this is not a warning, it's a threat the demonstrators are angry over sunday's u.s. air strikes against iranian in iraq and syria. secretary state mike pompeo reacting >> i'm confident president trump will authorize whatever it takes to keep american young men and women safe >> reporter: the u.s. still has some 5,000 troops in iraq who have been a recent target of iranian-backed violence. u.s. apache helicopte

hans nichols filed this report >> reporter: president trump touching down in texas to taut his chinarade deal before a friendly audience. after the president's legal team formally responded to the senate impeachment summons calling the articles brazen and unlawful democrats today dismissing that argument >> there is ample evidence, over whelming evidence any jury would convictin three minutes flat. >> reporter: while alan dershowitz distanced himself from the white house legal team that he's joining. >> i did not read that brief or sign that brief. that's not part of my mandate. my mandate is to present the constitutional argument. >> reporter: aside from knowing tuesday's start time, there's still uncertainty if new witnesses and evidence will be allowed during the process >> senator mcconnell prevails and there's no witnesses it will be the first impeachment trial in history that goes to conclusion without witnesses >> reporter: some of the rules are known. no cell phones, no standing, no talking. senators are to remain silent. they may want to consider a redo. >> maybe they ought

nbc's hans nichols has the latest >> reporter:t the in iraq u.s. forces firing tear gas as protesters set tires on fire and try to scale the compound's walls while iraqi securitye irad demonstrators packing up and dispersing after their militia leaders ordered a retreat. president trump sending 750 troops from the 82nd airborne to the region to counter the iranian threat after 100 marines arrived within hours of the siege. >> we had some great warriors come in and do a fantastic job they were therein stan t instany as soon as we heard. there will never be a benghazi >> reporter: they made it inside the walls of the embassy complex. president trump blames the attack on iran saying he would hold them responsible. but the country's to leaderti iranian-backen attack on americans last friday, which prompted a u.s. strike on an iranian-backed militia this week the president was asked about the prospects of war >> i don't think that would be g do i want to no i want to have peace i like peace >> reporter: and, frances, the president also weighing in on no

there are risks in the broader strategy. >> hans nichols, thank you. garrett haake on capitol hill, mieke eoyang, please stand by because i want to bring in somebody who was actually an impeachment manager during the impeachment trial we're talking about. of former bill clinton. congressman bob barr. thank you for being with us. ken starr is somebody who's familiar to you. what's your reaction to the president's team here? >> i think both teams with one exception that i can talk about in a moment if you'd like, but i think both teams are very strong. the house team has a group of trained litigators. they have their work cut out for them in trying to convince a small number of senators that might be wavering that you can impeach a president and remove him from office even without proving that a crime was committed. the president's team with ken starr in particular is very well attuned to the senate and to the process and to the prodder public -- broader public relations of this impeachment trial which is what it's all about ultimately. >> how do you see

nbc hans nichols who is in miami. and nbc national security and pentagon correspondent courtney kube. richard, you are on the ground there. this happened in baghdad. closer to where you are than -- than where we are, certainly. what's going to happen next? what are we expecting for tomorrow? >> we're expecting a lot of tension. a lot of volatility. and potentially, violence on the streets. tomorrow, officially, there are going to be mourning celebrations. there are going to be shiite militias are going out on the streets and they are going to be celebrati celebrating martyrdom of qasem soleimani and also a militia leader who was in the same convoy, apparently he was receiving qasem soleimani from the airport. they were driving out of the airport when they were hit by american drones. so they will be having these funeral celebrations. vows of revenge across baghdad tomorrow. and they're not supposed to be held very far away from the u.s. embassy. and these are the same shia militias, the same people who are out on the

and hans nichols, we will start with you.hink the big question with regards to this news breaking overnight, is basically why. why now? >> it was an opportunity. it has been a long part of the administration's list for a long time, and an opportunity, plus this idea, and this is what is interesting about last night, was the legal nature. and they're clearly couching this as self-defense. and there's something else, and that this was, suleimani was someone who had command and control, and was putting americans at risk. so you looked at the way the white house is couching this and the state house and the defense department as well, it is along legal lines. now what isn't along legal lines is how the world is going to respond. and that's what is starting to come in. an ambivalent statement also from the united kingdom, with both side, and one of america's closest ally, and you have the warnings from the state department, to americans, you guys had mentioned, and then the question that the president is waking up to this morning,

question really is -- and the courts haven't quite ruled on this -- where is the line, david. >> hans nicholsy much, hans. appreciate it. >>> we're going o'to move up pennsylvania avenue. we're going to hear from one of the moderate rm senators, gop susan collins telling her local paper, she's working with a small group of republicans to ensure witnesses can be called in the senate trial. senator collins later telling nbc news it's important that both sides be treated fairly. joining us from washington d.c, andrew let me ask you about the significance of that, how closely you're watching these moderate republicans, be that susan collins or lisa murkowski, others who have given some indication that they would like to see something in some shape or form different from what the senator majority leader mitch mcconnell has proposed. >> even people like mitt romney in that group who said he wants to see john bolton testify at some point. the question is going to be for susan collins is can she cobble together at least four republican senators inbou inclu herself to try to make this happen on the ba

. >> so let's go to the white house now and nbc news correspondent hans nichols. hans, how is the white house reacting to the bolton news? >> reporter: they have mixed reactions. in part because no one knows, what's so fascinating about this bolton comment, no one knows what bolton's going to say. and that puts a great deal of uncertainty inside the white house. now, they're saying that, you know, you can't go back and relitigate the house's job. the house gathered all the evidence. the senate's job is to weigh that evidence. fascinating thing about john bolton we could have a debate whether or not someone left the administration way worse breakup than john bolton did with the president. mattis ugly, tillis ugly. different is bolton continued to sort of needle the president. a back and forth about his twitter account. he's got a book coming out. and so there's this notion inside the white house that they don't quite know where bolton is. is he on the trump team or is he off it? and that's a you know, uncomfortable place to be for the white house. now, they'll make

nbc's hans nichols is traveling with the president and brings us more this morning. day at mar-a-lago, ready to strike iran, if they choose to avenge the death, the killing of soleimani. now, the president insists he doesn't want regime change but he says if he's forced to act, they've identified targets. president donald trump, topping off a florida campaign event by touting the death of a notorious iranian military leader. >> qasem soleimani has been killed and his bloody rampage is now forever gone >> reporter: defending the drone strike that killed him as an act of self-defense. >> he was planning a very major attack and we got him. >> reporter: earlier, insisting that he ordered the strike to stop a war, not start one. but still warning of repercussions if iran retaliates >> we have all of those targets already fully identified >> reporter: meanwhile, the pentagon announcing the deployment of 3,500 troops from the 82nd airborne. some are already en route to the region the targeted killing provoking criticism from congress, as lawmakers complain they were not tol

nbc's hans nichols is traveling with the president in florida. hans, what's the latest? >> well, the white house is basically is in wait and watch mode. the president spent most of the day at his golf course and the heavy diplomatic lifting was left to mike pompeo and he was talking to lots of people. he's basically trying to do what the president is also trying to do, and that is make the case that the threat against americans was imminent. pompeo's being met with criticism. president trump is being met with skepticism, at least we've seen congressional democrats as they review the evidence they've seen thus far. we didn't hear a whole lot from the president. there's one tweet talking about republican unity. last night he was at a campaign event and it was a group of evangelical christians here in south florida, further south than miami. he topped off his remarks with targeting and killing soleimani. it's an indication -- he also mentioned al baghdadi. it's an indication of what we may get from the president in terms of his stump speech. talking about judges, he's reall

hans nichols, thank you for the update. >>> there's also breaking news on a different front. in western pennsylvania five people are dead and at least 60 have been hospitalized after a big pileup involving a tour bus, semitrucks and cars. gabe gutierrez joins us now with the latest on what he's learning. what do you know? >> just within the past few minutes, we heard from one of the hospitals treating some of these victims. as you mentioned, about 60 people rushed to the hospital. most of them have been released, but five people have lost their lives. we had not known the makeup of these victims. we now know according to the hospital that the victims range in age in 15 years old to 6 7 years old. let's take a listen from the news conference that just wrapped up a short time ago. >> we had students. we had a numb of adolescents, which really concerned us considering they were deaths a at the scene. and we had some family members. we had a a brother and sister, a mother and son, mother and daughter, so it really was a combination of different people that really kind of interest

nbc's hans nichols joins us from west palm beach where he is traveling with the president. hans, we understand the vice president, mike pence has made phone calls. do we know what they entailed? >> reporter: getting the american side of the phone calls. that's important. sometimes there's a dispute about what the foreign leaders talk about. saw it with pompeo and lavrov's two almost describing different calls. but the secretary of state is burning up phone lines, turking to turkish parts and german and the french and an effort by the white house and administration to explain what they did and to kind of get to the bottom of what they're claiming was the immediacy of this threat, because they've been met with skepticism. skepticism in foreign capitals. and on capitol hill. now, we don't know to what extent the white house plans to present specific intelligence either to foreign leaders or on capitol hill. we know there's going to be classified briefings next week and that up to this point the information that the white house has shared and the administration has shared with l

hans nichols is covering the president in west palm beach. secretary of state mike pence had this to say earlier yesterday on fox news. take a's listen and your thoughts on the other end. >> the risk of doing nothing was enormous. enormous in the short-term, the imminent attack qasem soleimani was plotting and also highly risky. doing nothing in this region shows weakness and emboldens iran. >> it does appear a change in narrative out of the administration. is there any news on the intelligence front right now at least that we're hearing today that led the president to order this strike? >> reporter: only that there is a planned additional briefings for lawmakers when they return to washington next week. classified briefings. officials from the state department and pentagon were on capitol hill friday. that obviously didn't satisfy some lawmakers. you had schiff questioning it. we just heard from congresswoman dingell also saying we basically can't take the president's word for this. it's something similar that pompeo may be getting from some

let's go first to my colleague white house correspondent hans nichols, who's traveling with the president in florida. hans, where do things stand right now? >> well, the finishing touch is a good way to put it. on this letter, this response, from the president's legal team. it's an answer to that summons. now, think of this as the procedure aspects of this. the broader constitutional arguments. the threshold arguments. that will be dealt with in the brief. the brief is due to the senate on monday. but what we're learning about what the procedural response will be is that the white house is attacking all the things the house did in terms of the witnesses they called. in terms of the substance. in terms of the processes that were afforded to the president. so this is round one from the white house. think of it this point almost a tactical fight. both sides are doing their moves. now, what white house officials are stressing is that they want to be nimble on this legally. they want to both preserve options and preserve their ability to respond to what they see might be happening in the senat

. >> hans nichols is traveling with the president and joins us from west palm beach, florida. hans, happy new year to you. we know the president there had a lot to say and so did his lawyer, rudy giuliani last night. >> reporter: this big event at mar-a-lago, a new year's eve celebration. you heard the president there basically saying he's agnostic on a potential trial with maybe a slight favor for something that could potentially, as he says, exonerate him. you also had rudy giuliani there along with a lot of other republican donors, big names, but when rudy was asked if he'd testify, he seemed to be willing to do it. >> i would testify. i would do demonstrations. i'd give lectures. i'm give summations. or i'd do what i do best, i'd try the case. i'd love to try the case. >> are you going to? are you telling us you would try the case? >> i don't know if anybody would have the courage to give me the case, but if you give me the case, i will prosecute it as a racketeering case, which i kind of invented anyway. >> now that to me seems like rudy giuliani's auditioning for the job

hans nichols is with the president in florida, courtney kube at the pentagon and matt bradley following developments from london. hans, what's the latest we're hearing from the white house? >> reporter: geoff, a couple new developments this hour. number one, the president is answering this criticism at least through the retweet that he didn't read in congressional leaders and suggested they might have tipped off the iranians. he's not directly saying, but suggested they weren't informed for the same reason congressional democrats were informed. quite an explosive allegation. we also have the president seem to be opening up a new front hinting the the government in bagdad, the government in iraq that the u.s. pays billions of dollars, been there a long time, almost a warning not to take any action. there's been some reporting about having a bill in parliament and iraq to have the u.s. troops leave. finally you have the actual legal justification. secretary of state mike pompeo saying this was clearly the doctrine of pre emery self-defense. have a listen to how he put it. >> the american

nbc news correspondent hans nichols has the latest. >> reporter: the secretary of defense appearing tot the commander in chief that a specific threat from iran involved four u.s. embassies in the middle east. >> i didn't see one with regard to four embassies. >> reporter: but esper was careful not to directly undercut president trump. >> what the president said was he believed that it probably and could have been attacks against additional embassies. >> reporter: after justifying the strike that killed qassem soleimani at a thursday campaign rally by saying that multiple embassies were threatened. >> not just the embassy in baghdad. >> reporter: the president got more specific in a fox news interview friday night. >> i can reveal that i believe it would have been four embassies and i think that probably baghdad already started. >> reporter: esper part of an administration effort to defend the strike as democratic and republican lawmakers question the evidence that the trump administration has shared with congress. >> he is funneling the intelligence. >> reporter: the congressional conc

hans nichols, nbc news traveling with the president in palm beach, florida. >>> just a programming noteg to be reairing all of rachel maddow's lev parnas interview airing at 10 p.m. eastern. >>> kanye west is catching heat this morning for an evangelical prayer rally. >> while yesterday's event was aimed at uniting people, some people found it divisive and offensive. i would have noticed some dizziness that could lead to balance issues. that's because i'm trained to report any changes in behavior, no matter how small, so tom could have peace of mind. we'll be right there. we have to go. hey, tom. you should try right at home. they're great for us. the right care. right at home. our retirement plan with voya gives us confidence. so we can spend a bit today, knowing we're prepared for tomorrow. wow, do you think you overdid it maybe? overdid what? well planned, well invested, well protected. voya. be confident to and through retirement. the good news? our comfort lasts all day. the bad news? so does his energy. depend® fit-flex underwear offers your best comfort and protection guaranteed.

let's go to hans nichols in palm beach, florida, where the president is spending the weekend. so we have that deadline today. what's expected? we sort of did a quick summary there. >> reporter: so the deadline today is just more paperwork. it's to sort of get a preliminary briefing from the white house lawyers to the senate. the real deadline for the formal brief is sometime on monday. the white house and the legal team has telegraphed their strategy on this. the day has been dominated but these two comments from two moderate republican senators, lisa murkowski and susan collins. they're hinting that they'd be open to potentially additional information and witnesses, but they by no means are definitive. what murkowski is saying is that if she's not satisfied, then she'll go ahead and be open to new witnesses. collins is in the same camp where she's saying after we do this first round of the trial, then there may be a vote for witnesses. at that point she may be inclined to listen to them. hedges from both of them. the context for all of this is additional information coming ou

hans nichols, thank you as well. we'll continue to follow this. >>> joining us now, democratic senator from new york, kirsten gillibrand. she serves on the armed services committee. thank you for joining us. we've got to start with john bolton. he said he will testify if theed by the senate. does that put pressure on speaker pelosi to send over the articles of impeachment? >> i don't think it puts pressure on speaker pelosi. she will make a decision when she thinks it's appropriate based on the circumstances. i do think it puts pressure on senator mcconnell, because if those impeachment articles do come to the senate, and when they come to the senate, we have a willing witness to has relevant information who has asked and is available to testify. and so that puts pressure on republicans, the mcconnell to allow us to call witnesses. we certainly would like to hear from bolton, mulvaney, others like giuliani as well and pompeo. so i think it puts pressure on him. >> and why do you think that john bolton would be a witn

nbc's hans nichols reports. >> reporter: two moderate republican senators indicating that they are open to hearing from witnesses in president trump's impeachment trial. >> i'm very likely to vote for additional information. >> if i determine that i did not have enough, i will vote to accept additional information. >> reporter: the president's legal team responding to the senate impeachment summons calling the articles a dangerous attack on the right of the american people to freely choose their president. their comments coming after fresh photo evidence putting lev parnas, associate of rudy giuliani, in focus for democrats. the photos bolstering his claim he was well connected to the trump world. >> everybody was in the loop. >> reporter: the photos released by the house judiciary and text messages that link parnas, a soviet born businessman to house republican devin nunes, a staunch trump defender. he texted an aide to nunes to arrange interviews with key ukraine cans and also do you want to interview the general prosecutor. we reached out to nunes for comment and haven't heard back.

let's take you back to hans nichols. he is traveling, and eamon mohadin. >> we knew his name, we knew his awful work, but very few people here actually know who general suleimani is, but in terms of the actual threat, osama bin laden versus suleimani to the american people, how do they compare? >> very different to be honest with you. although they would make the argument that qasem suleimani would be considered a terrorist foreign. he is a member of a sovereign state and a member of the military force and a state actor, so to speak, but he did, no doubt have influence in a lot of non-state actors in the region and that is where a lot of americans would be concerned about what he was doing in the region because through his paramilitary proxies in countries like lebanon, syria and iraq. particularly in iraq throughout the american invasion in the country, he led the paramilitary forces that were carrying out some of the these attacks against american forces and killing them, but at the same time, just to give you a sense

nbc's hans nichols is with the president in florida. courtney, some recent remarks made by defense secretary mark esper as well as general mark millie, the chairman of the joint chiefs. what do they have to say about all these global crises that are unfold? >> so we maerd from them specifically first about what's going on in iraq with these protests. of course, the embassy, the protesters have now left the embassy, the area around it. but secretary of defense mark esper says the u.s. believes that hezbollah, the riern backed militia group believed to be behind the rocket attacks and behind fomenting many of these protesters and the protests we've seen in the past several days, esper says he thinks the u.s. believes that kh will try to continue to carry out additional attacks. he had strong language for them, if, in fact, they do that, they will regret it. he also said the u.s. military reserves the right to take preemptive action before if they see any indications that any of these militia groups are planning any of these attacks. on th

. >> let's go to the white house and hans nichols standing by for us. we've heard this, first of all, the evolving narrative justifying the killing of the iranian general soleimani. walk us through what the administration is saying about that. >> reporter: it seems like every time they talk they alter it slightly. thursday the president said the threat was a single embassy. then later that evening at the rally in ohio he had multiple embassies he said were targeted and that provided the imminent threat and allowed their threat. then in an interview that aired at 10:00 last night, he put the number at four. saying four embassies were targeted, including the one in baghdad. but if you listen closely he also has a little hedge in there. >> did he have a large scale attacks planned for other embassies, and if those were planned, why can't we reveal that to the american people? wouldn't that help your case? >> i can reveal that i believe it would have been four embassies and i think that probably baghdad already started. >> we had specific information on an

and nbc's hans nichols is at the white house and courtney kube is at the defense department. courtney, let's start with your new reporting. tell us what you're when the president authorized soleimani's killing and what it does to the administration's justification for the strike. >> so geoff, it's not just when they authorized the killing of soleimani but when he really first came into the sights. my colleague cara lee found out in fact it was early on in the trump administration in early 2017 that they began tracking qassem soleimani more closely than they had in the previous administration. but then it was last summer and the summer of 2019 when the u.s. first -- the administration first started to target him for the possible target list. back in may, the white house, particularly john bolton then national security adviser put out a statement about a large deployment of u.s. military to the region because of some threats from iran. well, the tensions over the next several weeks and months between the u.s. and iran were very, very high. that was when the administration start

nbc's hans nichols is also there for us. hans, what's the latest coming out of the floridan white house there at mar-a-lago? any updates officially? >> reporter: the president's in a wait-and-watch mode. the entire white house is. the president headed out to his golf course. seems as though politics is on his mind. he's tweeting about unity within the republican party. and last night at that event with evangelicals further down south towards miami, the president was making this case, how quickly he inserted the death of qasem soleimani into his stump speech. >> qasem soleimani has been killed, and his bloody rampage is now forever gone. he was plotting attacks against americans, but now we've ensured that his atrocities have been stopped for good. they are stopped for good. i don't know if you know what was happening, but he was planning a very major attack, and we got him. >> reporter: the white house is planning some classified briefings for members of congress, next week when congress returns to town. we'll see if what the

hans nichols reports from the white house. >> reporter: tonight the secretary of defense appearing to contradict the commander-in-chief in a specific threat from iran involved four u.s. embassies in the middle east >> i didn't see one with regard to four embassies. >> reporter: but esper was careful not directly undercut president trump. >> what the president said was he believed that it probably and could have been takes against additional embassies. >> reporter: after justifying the strike that killed qassem soleimani at a thursday campaign rally by saying multiple embassies were threatened -- >> not just the embassy in baghdad. >> reporter: the president got more specific in a fox interview friday night >> i can reveal i believe it would have been four embassies, and i think that probably baghdad already started. >> reporter: as for part of an administration effort to defend the strike if democratic and republican lawmakers questioned the evidence that the trump administration has shared with congress intelligendging the >> reporter: the congressional concern on iran coming as hous

i want to bring in nbc's hans nichols, richard engel from northern iraq. ali arouzi is tehran's beauty chief. joining us from iran. hans, let's start with all those significant headlines we ticked through. is there any sense this morning the president may back down on his threats or is the u.s. looking like it might be inching closer to war? >> reporter: the president's latest tweet is about iran not getting a nuclear weapon. what we've seen from the president and the administration is three different justifications. the initial one was that there was an imminent threat. you heard it from the defense department and the state department. the president talked about all the damage he had done to u.s. forces throughout the region throughout the years. now he's coaching it in broader terms as a dee nukization move by this administration. so that expands it. we heard from him on air force one. he doesn't seem at all troubled by this idea he's targeting cultural sites. he's doubling down on that as well. what we also saw from the president yesterday, opening up a

nbc's hans nichols is following the president for us in florida. ew activity there inside the green zone. any new reaction from the white house, hans? >> reporter: no. most of the white house -- most of the reaction today is coming out of the state department. the white house is mostly quiet. the president's still at his golf club. we do know that secretary of state mike pompeo has been burning up the phones talking to diplomats, in asia, in middle east, reaching out, explaining why the u.s. thought this threat was imminent and therefore necessitated the response that they did. now, two days ago, you had pompeo, 36 hours ago, you had pompeo put out a tweet suggesting that people inside of iraq were cheering for the death of soleimani. we just have a response now from iran's foreign minister, and he is suggesting that pompeo is an arrogant clown. so, this is an escalation in rhetoric between the two sides. i'm going to read the whole tweet -- "24 hours ago, an arrogant clown," he seems to be referring to pompeo -- "claimed people were dancing in the

hans nichols is standing by for us. he's been following the president in palm beach, florida as well. what is the white house doing in preparation of tuesday's trial? do we have any better sense of what the president's defense strategy is going to be, hans? >> we know the defense strategy is going to be divided. when you look at the sheer number of attorneys they have, when you count them all up, you're close to ten. some of the attorneys will be taking more of an administrative role. others will be presenting the oral arguments in the senate. some will be dealing with the constitutional issues, other with the threshold matter. but they all seem to understand the gravity of what they're about to go through. and pam bondi was on our air earlier can today. here's how she's putting it. >> this team has been ready to go. the white house counsel, working with jay, we've been ready. we were ready last month. we're ready now, we'll be ready next week. impeaching a president is one of the most mon men tow things you can do in o

. >> nbc news' hans nichols joins me from the white house. what's he saying? >> well, initially he seemed to agree with pelosi that there was a stigma involved in impeachment. just moments ago, the president seemed to be shifting gears ever so slightly. and it seems as though he favors an outright dismissal. now he's couching it and saying they are giving credence to the trial rather than an outright dismissal. i agree. so that's the closest the president has come to this idea that some senators have already introduced into the senate that instead of actually hearing the evidence, instead of having a trial when pelosi, if she does indeed decide to send them over, that they would have a quick motion to dismiss. you heard rudy giuliani say that there's not a strong enough case and instead of actually having a trial you go straight to dismissal. the president is now getting behind that. now what we don't know is whether or not that will influence what speaker pelosi plans to do this week. if i heard her correctly was have a vote on that in sending the articles. b

nbc news correspondent hans nichols has more. >> reporter: president trump touching down in texas toe deal before a friendly audience. after the president's legal team formally responded to the senate impeachment summons calling the articles brazen and unlawful. democrats dismissing that argument. >> there is ample evidence, overwhelming evidence, any jury would convict in three minutes flat. >> reporter: alan dershowitz distanced himself from the legal team he's joining. >> i did not read that brief. my mandate is to present the constitutional argument. >> reporter: aside from knowing tuesday's start time there's still uncertainty if new witnesses and evidence will be allowed during the prose. >> senator mcconnell prevails and there are no witnesses, it will be the first impeachment trial in history that goes to conclusion without witnesses. >> reporter: some of the rules are known, no cell phones, no standing, no talking. senators are commanded to keep silent on pain of imprism. and senate republicans suggest that the house may want to consider a redo. >> maybe they ought to withdr

nbc's hans nichols reports. >> reporter: tonight two moderate republican senators indicating that they open to hearing from witnesses in president trump's impeachment trial. >> i am very likely to vote for additional information. >> should i determine that i do not have enough, i will vote to accept additional information. >> reporter: this afternoon the president's legal team responding to the senate impeachment summons, calling the articles a dangerous attack on the right of the american people to freely choose their nt. their comments coming after fresh photo evidence putting lev parnas and indicted associate of rudy giuliani into focus for democrats. the photos bolstering parnas's claim he was well connected to the trump world. >> everybody was in the loop. >> reporter: the photos released by the house judiciary committee along with text messages that link parnas, a soviet-born businessman, to house republican devin nunes. a staunch trump defender. parnas texted an aid to arrange meetings with key ukrainians. >>> do you want to interview the general prosecutors? >>> nbc reached out

nbc news hans nichols in palm beach, florida, where the president is spending the weekend. here again but i know it's a big lift, we got over 100 pages just now all included hearing from both what we think the white house is going to do as well as what the democrats are going to do. where would you like to start, my friend? >> reporter: well, so the legal battle is joined and let's start with the senate response bauecae that has to do with the procedure and getting a sense for how they will have, the white house legal counsel, two-pronged attack against the democrats on this, against the articles of impeachment. what we are hearing in the six-paid letter released moments ago questioned the ground, the basis for impeachment. they're using strong language like attack on the rights of the american people to freely choose their president. they call it destructive, toxic the whole way through. this is the opening salvo from the white house's legal team. we'll get a formal and longer brief about the merits of the case by monday so this is coming in two tranches. what we are heari

. >> hans nichols joins us from the white house. i want to play what the president said about the embassy threat to laura ingraham that was on fox friday night. >> don't the american people have a right to know what specifically was targeted without revealing methods and sources? >> i don't think so but we will tell you that probably it was going to be the embassy in baghd baghdad. you saw that happening. you saw it with all of the men, very few women, circling very strongly and very viciously, knocking out windows and trying to get in and they were close to getting in and i called out the military. >> did they have large scale attacks planned for other embassies, and if those were planned, why can't we reveal that to the american people? wouldn't that help your case? >> i can reveal that i believe it would have been four embassies and i think that probably baghdad already started, but baghdad certainly would have been the lead but i think it would have been four embassies. it could have been military bases or a lot of other things

hans nichols, good sunday to you. we have the president airing his grievances on twitter today, targeting democratic congressman and lead impeachment manager, that's the key here, adam schiff. let's talk about what this is all about. >> reporter: it's a combination of offense and defense for the president. on the defensive side he's talking about how strong the republican party is but he's clearly taking shots at adam schiff in a very personal way. i'm going to read what he has to say, shifty adam schiff is a corrupt politician and probably a very sick man. he has not paid the price yet for what he has done for our country. and that raises the question of what sort of price, what is the repercussions that president donald trump is suggesting. now, adam schiff was asked about this on "meet the press" and he fired back. >> i made the argument that it's going to require moral courage to stand up to this president. and this is a wrathful and vindictive president. i don't think there's any doubt about it. if you think ther

but that's okay, the farmers -- >> nbc's hans nichols has more >> reporter: president trump touchingown in texas to tout his china trade deal before a friendly audience. after the president's legal team formally responded to the senate impeachment sum mons calling the articles brazen and unlawful democrats zmrifg th s dismissin argument >> is there is ample evidence, overwhelming evidence that any jury would convict in three minutes flat >> reporter: while distanced hif >> that is not part of my mandate. my mandate to to present the constitution argument. >> reporter: aside from knowing tuesday's start time there's still no allowed during the process. >> it will be the first impeachment trial in history that goes to conclusion without witnesses. >> reporter: some of the rules are known. no cell phones, no standing, no talkinging senators are commanded to keep silence on imprisonment. and the house may want to consider a redo. >> maybe they ought to withdraw the articles of impeachment and start over again >> reporter: with one of the president's closest allies saying mr. trump wants

hans nichols is standing by for us there. talk to us about the latest coming out of the white house this morning? >> reporter: well, the president's waking up. he's already up here in mar-a-lago ready to hit iran if they decide to retaliate for the killing of soleimani. the president's insisting, and this is some of the tension in the president's rhetoric, he's insisting that he doesn't want regime change but if he's forced to act they've already identified specific targets. president donald trump topping off a florida campaign event by touting the death of a notorious iranian military leader. >> qassem soleimani has been killed and his bloody rampage is now forever gone. >> reporter: defending the drone strike that killed him as an act of self-defense. >> he was planning a very major attack, and we got him. >> reporter: earlier insisting that he ordered the strike to stop a war, not start one, but still warning of repercussions if iran retaliates. >> we have all of those targets already fully identified. >> reporter: meanwhi

something the s denied hans nichols reports >> reporter: tonight the prospect of new video evidence linking president trump and lev parnas the indicted soviet born businessman looming over the white house >> are there more recordings that lev parnas has >> yes >> with the president? >> yes >> do you plan to release those? >> perhaps. we've sent recordings to the house intelligence committee. >> reporter: a tape already released puts the president and parn parnas at the same dinner in 2018, appearing to discuss the ousting of the u.s. ambassador to ukraine, marie yovanovitch. undercutting trump's contention that he had no relationship with parnas >> i don't know him. >> reporter: today the white house dismissi ng trump's routine. >> the president sits at many, many dinners at many round tables with people that he does not know. >> reporter: with the white house on defense, the president going on offense targeting the lead house impeachment manager adam schiff, tweeting the corrupt politician has not paid the price yet for what he has done to our country. schiff responding on "meet the press.

nbc's hans nichols has more. >> reporter: the prospect of new video evidence linking president trump and lev parnas, the indicted soviet-born businessman loom over the white house. >> are there more recordings lev parnas has with the president? >> yes. >> do you plan to release those? >> perhaps we've sent recordings to the house intelligence committee >> reporter: a tape already released puts the president and parnas at the same dinner in 2018 appearing to discuss the ousting of the u.s. ambassador to ukraine marie yovanovitch. >> get her out tomorrow. i don't care. >> reporter: undercutting trump's contention that he had no relationship with parnas. >> i don't know him. >> reporter: the white house dismissing the dinner as a regular part of trump's routine. >> the president sits at many, many dinners at many, many roundtables with people that he does not know. >> reporter: with the white house on defense over parnas, the president going on offense, targeting the lead house impeachment manager, adam schiff, tweeting that the corrupt poll significance iticid the price yet for what he

>> bring in nbc news correspondent hans nichols at the white house where the president spoke yesterday. hans, good morning. so we hear the public posture of the president that this is all a hoax, phone call was perfect, he's not concerned, but what is he reading right now and what is he really thinking as he sees the chief justice of the united states supreme court being sworn in to oversee a historic impeachment trial? i note that the president was praising senator lamar alexander on twitter yesterday, one of the republicans who's been viewed as perhaps one who might swing over to at least vote to include witnesses in this trial if not to convict the president. >> reporter: look, the white house, the president, are making last-minute adjustments. for all the talk and prelude to impeachment doesn't seem they've settled on their strategy. two fronts. number one, it's not really clear what the full sweep of the defense team will look like. right? the plan had always been as soon as the house announces managers the white house would put forward their team. they haven't done that in a defi

. >> joining me now is hans nichols and our national security correspondent, natasha bertrand. hans, rudy says he'll testify, does the president want him to? >> to prosecute the case or at least defense. when you heard what rudy said there anyone who has the courage to do that. only one person that can hire rudy giuliani to defend the president of the united states, that's the president of the united states. last night seemed like a black tie oaudition. there were a lot of fall-out party and they were heading into the new year's eve. if he wants to make this case publicly, why he should represent the president, he just done that and he's going to do it privately. we don't know if white house officials would sign off on that or if they need to sign off on that. rudy giuliani is one of the president's personal attorney. >> the president is saying again last night he's fine with the senate trial, let's play that. >> i don't really care. it does not matter. as far as i am concerned, that would be very happy with the trial. we did nothing wrong. >> does that give democrats some lever